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Iowa men’s 4 x 800-meter relay team is world-class
Iowa men’s 4 x 800-meter relay team win gold Friday at the Drake Relays with time of time of 7:21.88
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DES MOINES — The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
And for the Iowa men’s 4 x 800-meter relay team, the semi-finished product is already world-class.
“We’re beyond proud,” said the Hawkeyes’ Ryan Schreiner, who ran the third leg to help his quartet win gold Friday at the Drake Relays in a blistering and currently world-leading time of 7:21.88. “We’ve been flying under the radar for so long and this was really our moment to get on stage, get out there and show what we’re made of. It’s been a long time coming.”
Iowa’s anchor, Terrick Johnson, held off Iowa State’s edged hard-charging finisher, Emanuel Galdino to win the event at the Relays for the first time since 2017 and third time overall. A pair of native Iowans — Derek Leicht of Dubuque and James Fingalsen of Mason City — kept the Hawkeyes near the front, which Schreiner and Johnson ensured they’d cross the finish line first as the Cyclones settled for second.
“We knew Iowa State would be the biggest (competition) because of what they’ve ran so far this season,” said Johnson, a multi-time JUCO All-American who joined Iowa’s program this season. “But like my boy Ryan said, we knew we’ve been under the radar and we we just wanted to prove today that we can compete with the top teams despite what our PR’s are compared to theirs. When we got on the track with everybody else, we can compete with everybody.”
The Hawkeyes did more than that — and their win came on the heels of a strong third-place finish by the women’s 4 x 800 relay team. Iowa State took second in that race and Oregon won it going away.
Every point counts in the chase for the Relays Cup and both the Hawkeyes and the Cyclones should be strong contenders for that plaudit as more relays unfold on Saturday.
“The end goal is not to show up but to show out,” said Fingalsen, who won a Relays title in the 4 x 400 for Mason City in 2022. “Show what you’ve been training for and let the fans see, and let the other team and your teammates see what you can do.”
For now, showing out for Leicht, Fingalsen, Schreiner and Johnson means literally sitting on top of the world. That both boosts their confidence and affirms their faith that the best may be yet to come for this group.
“We might not have the best PR’s,” Leicht said. “But we know that when us four go out on the track we can beat anybody, compete with anybody, so we take a lot of pride in that.”
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